Papa John’s is blaming the NFL for hitting its bottom line.

The pizza company, which has been a league sponsor since 2010, sliced its sales and profit forecasts on Tuesday. And Papa John’s founder and CEO John Schnatter wasn’t shy about who he thinks is to blame for the “debacle”: Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership,” Schnatter said on a conference call with investors Wednesday. “The NFL has hurt Papa John’s shareholders.”

Though the ratings slump has many causes, some NFL fans may have tuned out because of the controversy over players kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police violence.

President Trump has called on fans to boycott the NFL if the league doesn’t crack down on protests. Last month, Vice President Mike Pence left an Indianapolis Colts game after San Francisco 49ers’ players took a knee during the anthem.

At a league meeting last month, Goodell and the NFL owners opted not to force players to stand during the Anthem.

The NFL may be part of the problems Papa John’s faces, but it’s far from the only one. The stock is down 24% this year, while competitors including Domino’s (DPZ) have performed well (Domino’s stock is up 12% this year).

Still, Schnatter put the NFL squarely at fault. He specifically cited the anthem protests as the root of the problem.

“This should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago,” Schnatter said. “The controversy is polarizing the customer, polarizing the country.”

In response, Papa John’s has pulled some of its planned commercials from NFL games this season. Schnatter said the NFL has promised to give the pizza company future spots in return.

“It indeed appears that National Football League strife may be weighing on same-store sales to some degree, with Papa John’s as the NFL’s Official Pizza Sponsor bearing some brunt of this issue,” Instinet analysts wrote in a research note Tuesday. “Sponsorship of NFL = No Free Lunch.”

Papa John’s still expects sales to increase by 1.5% in North America this year, but that’s down from its previous estimates.

DirecTV is offering unprecedented refunds for fans who want to cancel their NFL Sunday Ticket package, if they inform the company that they are doing so due to the recent protests during the national anthem, a source confirmed.

Once the season starts, fans usually cannot cancel their subscriptions, but AT&T, which owns DirecTV, decided to change the policy due to the sensitivity of the issue. The price of the package, which allows fans to get out-of-market games, is about $280.

An AT&T spokesperson declined to confirm the cancellation policy and said the company would have no numbers to share.

Players were emboldened after being challenged by President Donald Trump, who Friday night at a speech in Alabama, encouraged NFL owners to “fire” players who didn’t stand for the national anthem.

The stance, which Trump continued to assert throughout the weekend, had the opposite effect. Almost all of the league’s owners responded with statements affirming the players’ right to protest, as players and executives went as far as to coordinate their actions.

Not everyone was happy.

At some stadiums, fans booed the players. Others took to Twitter to say they were canceling their Sunday Ticket subscriptions.

An NFL spokesman says ratings overall were up 3 percent for Week 3 compared with Week 3 of last year, thanks in large part to the competitive game on Monday Night Football involving the Dallas Cowboys.The increase also was due to the fact that last year’s Monday Night Football game was competing against a presidential debate.

Odell Beckham Jr. returned to practice in a limited capacity Thursday, revealing that he’s dealing with a six- to eight-week injury timeline for his ankle that has already cost him the New York Giants’ season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

It has been 24 days since Beckham went down following an ugly preseason hit that bent his left leg inward on a Monday night against the Cleveland Browns. The Giants play the Detroit Lions this Monday night, exactly four weeks since the injury.
Beckham, despite testing the ankle before the Giants’ 19-3 loss to the Cowboys, wasn’t really close to playing Sunday because he hadn’t practiced all week.

“I don’t really know how realistic it was,” Beckham said. “As bad as I wanted to play, it just wasn’t there. It had been three weeks after the injury. It hasn’t even been a month since it happened. This is a six- to eight-week thing. Unfortunately, as much as I was trying my hardest to get there, it just wasn’t enough time.”

The Giants’ top playmaker is making progress as he practiced Thursday for the first time since the injury.

“It felt good. It felt good just to be back out there,” Beckham said. “Something about — it’s just when you put that helmet on, it’s a different mode. When you put the helmet on and go out there and warm up and when we got to individuals, I was running routes. I was feeling pretty good.

“So, like I said, we’re definitely taking major strides in the right direction. It’s a matter of time.”

Beckham was running, jumping and cutting better and more freely during practice Thursday.

It will be important to see how he bounces back for the Giants’ longest and most physical practice of the week on Friday, but there seemed to be optimism that he will play against the Lions.
“More than last week,” coach Ben McAdoo said. “We got him out there [to practice].”

It helps the Giants have the extra day since they’re playing Monday night. While his teammates had Monday and Tuesday off, Beckham concentrated on treatment those days.

Beckham again wouldn’t say whether he was dealing with a high ankle sprain. The Giants have simply called it an ankle injury and never detailed a timeframe for his return.

“I’m not a doctor, really,” Beckham said. “I don’t know how long it is. I’m just — there’s guidelines. It could be four to 12 weeks. You never know. Everybody heals differently.”

The rehab process for Beckham has been extensive. That doesn’t mean it has been enjoyable. He watched his teammates flop in the season opener against the Cowboys. The Giants had two first downs in the first half and finished with three points.

Beckham wanted to play Sunday. He wants to play Monday against the Lions, and said he’s doing everything possible to make it happen.
“I personally don’t want to get up at 6:30 every morning, get here for 7 o’clock treatment. The days we have off, I’m here at 10 o’clock for treatment. I go home, I do 5-6 hours of treatment,” Beckham said. “It’s boring. It’s not fun. Nobody wants to do that and definitely work all offseason and everything to get to Dallas and have to sit there. So I’m itching to get back on the field.”

He also warned he didn’t want this to be like his rookie season, when he returned early from a hamstring injury and suffered a setback.

“It’s like when I had the hamstring injury and you come back. You don’t know if it’s too early or not, and it gets reinjured and you set yourself back for another 5-6 weeks. I don’t have that luxury right now,” Beckham said. “So it’s a matter of getting to a point where you know you’re confident in it, it’s confident in itself and you can go. And you don’t have to worry about it.”

The Detroit Lions and Matthew Stafford agreed on a contract extension Monday that is worth $135 million over five years and will make the ninth-year quarterback the highest-paid player in NFL history.

At a reported annual value of slightly more than $27 million, Stafford’s contract tops that of Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who led the league for about two months after inking a five-year, $125 million pact in June.

The next NFL salary record could be set by Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins, who is playing on his second straight one-year deal after the team again used the franchise tag on him. Other quarterbacks who could be signing major contract extensions in the near future include Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan

Colin Kaepernick has thanked the participants of Wednesday’s rally in support of him outside NFL headquarters in New York, saying in a tweet that his “faith always has been and always will be in the power of the people.”

Kaepernick took to Twitter a day after more than 1,000 people, many wearing jerseys bearing his name, crowded the steps outside the league’s midtown Manhattan offices.

The protesters’ demands included that he be signed by the start of the regular season next month.

Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem last season while with the San Francisco 49ers to protest police brutality against black people.

Chants at the demonstration included, “Boycott! Boycott!”

Earlier Wednesday, the NAACP called for a meeting with the NFL to discuss the fate of Kaepernick, who was born to a white woman and a black man but was adopted by a white couple.

The civil rights organization’s interim president, Derrick Johnson, said in a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that it’s apparently “no sheer coincidence” that Kaepernick isn’t on a roster.

Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will file the appeal of his six-game suspension on Tuesday or Wednesday, sources close to him say, with the hope of getting back on the football field as soon as possible.

With that in mind, his legal team is preparing the arguments for his appeals hearing, either with Commissioner Roger Goodell or his designee. A portion of his argument, according to those familiar with it, revolves around the credibility of his alleged victim. Elliott will attempt to show that the NFL’s suspension did not accurately weigh that factor.

According to documents obtained by NFL.com, Elliott actually filed an official incident report alleging harassment with Frisco (Texas) Police on Sept. 5, 2016 against Tiffany Thompson, identified by the league as his alleged victim.

The report details that police were dispatched to Elliott’s house because he received “50-plus” phone calls from his ex-girlfriend between 2:39 a.m. and 10 a.m. She called from a blocked number and Elliott answered several times, he told police, informing Thompson she was not supposed to be calling him, per the report.

Elliott provided a written statement of the incident for police.

Elliott reported the claim one day before Columbus Police announced it would not press charges against Elliott, though the incident happened two days before that.

Columbus prosecutor Robert S. Tobias declined comment when asked in an email if his office was aware of the harassment claim before making its charging decision, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports.

Frisco Police Sgt. Jeff Inmon told Pelissero the harassment case is currently inactive. In addition, Elliott told police that Thompson hacked into his email account, found phone numbers and called them to leave “untruthful things that can hurt his image.” Thompson told league investigators that she contacted women Elliott was “messing around” with.

Goodell used this information earlier while forming his decision, but Elliott’s team hopes to highlight it in the appeal.

In his letter to Elliott, NFL Senior VP B. Todd Jones, special counsel for conduct, specifically addressed the credibility of Thompson. He wrote that these issues received “careful consideration” by the commissioner but added “no finding, and no disciplinary action, was based on simply one individual’s statements. Instead, Jones wrote, the findings are a combination of “photographic, medical, testimonial, and other evidence that is sufficiently credible in the Commissioner’s judgment to establish the facts, even allowing for concerns you and your representatives have advance about the complaining witness’s credibility.”

The score was 28-9 early in the fourth quarter and my thought was to start writing this article at that moment. Needless to say, I took a few seconds to think and said nah chill B, Brady is still playing you never know… Lo and behold we bared witness to the greatest comeback in Super-Bowl History for the now 5-time Champion and 4-time Super bowl MVP aka G.O.A.T. Tom Brady.

When the 2016 season started for the New England Patriots their starting Qb for the past 15 years was sidelined by the NFL with a suspension for the infamous case of “deflate-gate” 2 seasons ago. Brady was suspended the first four games of the season and many teams in the AFC thought this was the perfect chance to get a few legs up on them and dethrone them in the conference. Quite the contrary, the backup QB’s “led” the Pats to a 3-1 start. All Brady did was return to his usual MVP form with 28 TD’s and only 2 int’s as the team went 11-1 once he took the helm.

In only 12 games he still managed to place 2nd in the leagues MVP race showing how truly respected he is. While he took second in this match up, as he went head to against the MVP Matt Ryan, he showed Roger Goodell and everyone watching that he is the best to ever do it on the biggest stage of all, Super Bowl 51.

Brady was hit early and often and seemed to have no timing with his receivers throughout the first half. In fact Brady threw his first pick 6 of the yearzz with 3 minutes prior to halftime spotting Atlanta a 21-0. He managed to keep his head up and marched his team down for a critical Fieldgoal just before the half.

Down 28-9 the announcers said it and I paraphrase… You get so used to Belichick, Brady and these Patriots making a comeback you just are wondering when it’s going to happen. Once confidant and mistake free the Falcons were now missing blitz pick-ups and had their first turnover of the post season. These were just the breaks Brady needed as his experience and savvy allowed him to march down for TD’s on consecutive drives and tie the game before winning it in overtime.

Nevermind the greatest comeback in Super-Bowl history (no team has ever come back from more than 10 down in the big game let alone 19 points in the final quarter.) while on the route to the win he set a record with 456 passing yards! In this game the door is now officially shut, Tom Brady is the best QB that has played the game. When you combine Rings, MVP’s, leadership, and most importantly the #1 factor that QB’s are judged by… how does he do in the big. I have to say like him or not you gotta put some respeck on his name.

As the memes of Future, Ciara, and Russell Wilson have flooded our timelines, come to find out, Future was at the Falcons/Seahawks game watching. Twitter has had no remorse going completely in as you will see in the tweets below. And to make the situation worse, Bow Wow was in the building too.

(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

With Ciara and Wilson now married, having her exes at the game had to be, well, rather awkward to say the least.

As far as rappers that have not been linked to Cici, Ludacris, another Atlanta native, performed during the halftime show and Big Boi was showing his support for the Falcons. The Falcons refrained from playing any of Future’s music during the game, with head coach Dan Quinn saying days before the matchup that “We will absolutely not go down that road.”

As 2016 comes to a close I could not help but take a look at all the amazing stories of this year…

The greatest story line to me has to be the World Series win for the Chicago Cubs. While they were one of the favorites going in to the season, having not won a title 108 years it is just a moment when you have to be happy for them even if you are not a sports fan. That said while a perennial bad team the majority of the past 108 years somehow they have managed to maintain an incredibly loyal fan base and have been selling out for years. Not only did they win the World Series but it also took one of the most exciting game sevens to make it happen with an 8-7 10-inning victory over the Cleveland Indians who were trying to exercise there own demons having not a Championship since 1948.

Another monumental moment in sports this year was Peyton Manning taking the Broncos back to the Super Bowl and earning his 2nd ring as we all knew retirement was in the wings. Coming back from a mid-season injury and really a shell of his MVP form, he along with Von Miller and the vaunted defense willed another title for Denver.

What truly kept me on the edge of my seats during a usually boring long NBA season was watching the Golden St Warriors go for the best record in NBA history. The Chicago Bulls in 1996 when an absurd 72-10 and established a mark I thought would never be broken. Low and behold Steph Curry your defending MVP came back with another MVP season and players like Clay Thompson and Draymond Green played at All Star levels and the once laughing stock for many years went on to go 73-9. They reached the NBA finals and after a 3-1 lead bowed out to Lebron and the Cavs 4-3. Many will say because they did not close the deal they are not in conversation with greatest teams ever. If anybody’s asking I am taking the 96 Bulls in 5 games if they would have played.

This was also the year of the Summer Olympics and we had some great moments. Carmelo led the US Basketball team to another Gold and we loved that but swimmer Michael Phelps winning his record 23rd medal and retiring from the Olympics was the top story. The most bizarre and controversial moment was when Ryan Lotche, Phelps’ teammate alleged that he was robbed by gunpoint at a gas station with fellow swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen. Brazilian officials found no evidence that the incident occurred and announced in a press conference that the men had vandalized the property.

There were so many great stories in 2016 these are just a few what are your favorites?

In the U.S. American football is arguably the most popular sport with the rising interest in “Fantasy Football” where Men and Woman create fantasy teams with players from the NFL and use their stats to determine winners. However it is Association Football known to many as Soccer that is the runaway winner for the most popular sport in the entire world.

A study by Mostpopularsports.net in 2014 found the fan base at approx 3.5 Billion fans Worldwide! With our estimated population at 7 Billion that means HALF of the World are fans of the sport. Of all sports it is one of the easiest to pick up, as it simply requires you to be able to run and kick the ball creating a minimal learning curve. As it is the most popular sport, it also has the most passionate fans by far. In fact, fans of the sport often go over the edge as it’s common to have fights at stadiums full over 100K people with competing squads. One thing many do not know is that championship teams are paid quite handsomely with the 2010 World Cup winner taking home a cool 30 Million. Real Madrid’s Renaldo cashed in with $17 Million not including bonuses. Not bad for a 25 year old…

When you look at how much revenue is brought in for teams, individual salaries, TV rights and upward trend Basketball narrowly takes the second spot over Cricket, which is wildly popular among fans as well. Basketball, with its expansion in European leagues and increasing American presences in countries like China where Stephon Marbury has resurrected his life and career propels Basketball to this slot on the list. With players like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and now Lebron James over the past 40 years there have been great stars to carry the torch with a host of other greatly talented players. In a questionable move in 1992 America decided to allow professionals to play in the Olympics as every other country does thus the “Dream Team” was created consisting of many top 50 all time Hall of Famers. Needless to say they were treated like rock stars traveling the world and the brand on their shoulders helping to gain popularity for the sport.

As mentioned, Cricket comes in a close third with Tennis in the fourth slot. Tennis has long tradition all over the World and comes as no surprise appearing this high on the list as many kids, couples, and even seniors play the sport.

Ice Hockey cracks the top 10 at 9 on the list beating out popular traditional American sports Baseball and Football that land at 11 and 12 respectively. Hockey is loved in countries like Canada, the Russian republic, Europe, and America as well.

While the U.S. dictates a great deal, clearly when it comes to sports other parts of the World have an influence greater than many might think. What are your favorite and top ten sports? List them in the comments sections…